SEEFIRE aims to prepare for future collaboration in southeast Europe by studying the availability of options for network infrastructure, as well as the possible strategies for the development of research and education networking in the region, with a specific emphasis on the Western Balkan countries.

The project aims to raise awareness, among stakeholders of National Research and Education Networks (NRENs), governments, users and telecommunication operators, about the results of the SEEREN and GN1 projects in terms of providing interconnection facilities in southeast Europe and about the findings of SERENATE concerning the measures needed to reduce the digital divide in Europe. The project will exploit the results of these IST projects and the results of national research and education networking projects in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Serbia-Montenegro and Greece.

Southeast European countries have a strategic geographical role in connecting southeast European, Caucasian and Mediterranean countries to GÉANT. The SEEREN network, running since January 2004, is vital for collaboration of researchers in the region and needs to be sustained and upgraded by exploring all available infrastructure solutions. SEEFIRE will contribute to the preparation of the next generation of the SEEREN network (SEEREN2), by providing the tools and knowledge that may allow southeast European National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) to potentially obtain access to dark fibre. In this respect, it will considerably assist them in long-term sustainability plans.

SEEFIRE will contribute to introducing southeast European countries into the eInfrastructures community and will stimulate the launching of joint RTD projects, widening the scope of existing actions like SEEREN and SEE-GRID, and acting as a vehicle for the participating countries to pursue forthcoming FP6 projects and to become more technology competent.

SEEFIRE will pursue its goals by providing:

a benchmark of existing and potential optical fibre in the region,

an analysis of the technical options available for the deployment of dark fibre and the management of optical transmission by NRENs in the region, thereby providing guidelines for future implementations,

reports on economic aspects and regulations, and

information dissemination activities targeting both technical and policy-making actors in the region.